ADMINISTRATION PLANNING TAX CUT SHOWDOWN – Sam Stein: “Top officials in the Obama administration on Thursday outlined a major end-of-the-year push to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut, pledging to make Republicans take a political hit for inaction. In a background briefing with reporters, two senior administration officials repeatedly warned they would make an example of GOP lawmakers adjourning in December without acting on that major component of the president’s job package. ‘I think it is going to be very dramatic as we count down towards the end of the year and the clock is ticking on whether the average person’s taxes are going to go up $1,000 next year,’ said one official. ‘It is going to be certainly an organizing principle and a focusing principle for this debate, and we are going to make the argument as clearly as we can. … Congress cannot leave town and on their way out of town wave to the American people and say, ‘We just raised your taxes $1,000.”” [HuffPost]